This week we have begun by talking about Pentecost, the birth of the Church and the gift of the Holy Spirit. We have discussed the signs and symbols of Pentecost and the power that it gave the disciples to go forth and spread the Word of the Lord. That responsibility is now ours and we have been thinking hard this week about how we can spread the message of Jesus and His love for us. We have had a lovely day celebrating today - the children looked super in all their bright colours, we had a special playtime with the whole school and snacks and finished off with playground games in the afternoon!

Pentecost Sunday is this Sunday, 19th May, the spirit is near - celebrate!

English - we have continued on with our RWI lessons. During these sessions we all focus on phonics, reading, spelling and sentence development. We have also been working on our pre-cursive handwriting in which we focus on how to write our letters, starting on the line. We are continuing to work hard on our common exception words, reading them in class every day!

Maths - this week we have been working on numbers up to 50. We have made numbers using our base ten tens and ones sticks and squares, we have investigated how may tens and ones there are in a number and we have started to show our numbers in pictures, words and their values.

RE - this week has been all about Pentecost and the gift of the Holy Spirit. We have listened to the story of Pentecost, drawn about what happened to the disciples, found the signs and symbols of the special day and done some reading and writing about the story. We are now ready to celebrate the Birthday of the Church!

Art - this week the children have continued their printing unit with Mrs Gilheaney.

Science - this week we continued with our plants units by looking at seeds and the plants they grow into. We have also been looking at plants that we eat!

Topic - this week we continued with our Geography unit about the four countries that make up the UK. We recapped all that we had learnt about the four nations and then focused on Belfast and Cardiff and the features of each city.

Golden Award - Germaine for super learning on her sounds in RWI lessons. Germiane is working hard and making good progress as a result.

Writing Award - Mabel for trying really hard with her independent writing and using the features of our RWI lessons - using capital letters, finger spaces, full stops and her sounds to work out unknown words.

Maths Award - Esmae for super working on numbers up to 50, showing the numbers with tens and ones and drawings too! Great partitioning work this week.

PE will be on Monday and Friday so please send the children into class in the PE kits on those days. No earrings can be worn for PE so please ensure that they are taken out at home.

Water bottles - all the children were given a new school bottle this week. This will come home each night to be cleaned and re-filled. Please only use the school bottles and ensure your child brings theirs each day. Lost water bottles can be replaced at the school office, but I am afraid you will have to pay for those. Year 1 have white tops.

I will not be in class on a Thursday afternoon, as it is my release time. This will be covered by Mrs Gilheaney and Miss Simons and is also when the children will have Music with Mrs Watson

Party Invitations - I am afraid that Miss Simons and I will not be able to give out party invitations in class. Please do not send your child into class with them for them to give out - it creates upset and fuss about something that takes place outside of school.Thank-you for your understanding with this matter.

Key Rings - please do not put key rings onto your child’s school bag, it create fuss in class and then upset if they are lost.

School bag - please continue to use the red book bag that your child was given in Reception, we don’t not have the room to store large bags. Many thanks for your help with this matter.

Homework Expectations - please see the Homework page for what I expect the children to do at home…..don’t worry, it’s mainly just reading!! Yr1 Homework — Our Lady of the Assumption Catholic Primary School (squarespace.com)

Just a ‘heads up’ with a few useful dates…

24th May - Non-uniform day for PTFA funds - £1 contribution to PTFA

Week of 10th June - Phonics Screening for Yr1

14th June - Non-uniform Day for PTFA theme EUFA Euros wear football kit/team colour and bring in chocolate for the summer fayre events

27th June - KS1 SPORTS MORNING (Sport’s Day - but just the morning for KS1. Please note that if it rains and we are unable to do sports day, our next date will be 10th July

15th July -MOVING UP AFTERNOON - a chance for the children to experience an afternoon in Year 2!

12th July - PTFA Summer Fayre

19th July - SCHOOLS CLOSES FOR SUMMER HOLIDAYS!

PHONICS SCREENING - Year 1 Phonics Screening will take place the week of 10th June. (First week back after our half term holiday) Please ensure your child is is school this week as each child must complete an individual phonic assessment at some point during this week.

Thanks so much for those who were able to come to the short meeting on Tuesday - lovely to see you. Hopefully everyone received their little information pack - I would be REALLY GRATEFUL if you could take some time over the holidays to remind children of the ‘special friends’ and read some of the words from the pack. Two weeks is a long time for little people to have a break and then come back to their screening! A little bit of practice each day would go a long way! Many, many thanks. (See the Oxford Owl video link above for how to say the sounds.)How can I support my child with phonics? - Oxford Owl for Home

Please note that during this week I will not be in class in the mornings so Mrs Gilheaney will be delivering English and Maths.

At Our Lady's we like to support our parents/carers in Online Safety matters.

Keeping children and young people safe online is one of the biggest challenges facing society today and it is all of our responsibility to ensure that children are educated to make positive, informed choices when they are online.

This month’s online safety guide gives helpful advice about…

What Parents and Educators Need to Know about Helldivers 2 This free Wake up Wednesday guide discusses the online safety risks of the video game Helldivers 2 and offers advice on how to safeguard younger players.

We hope you find this guide informative and helpful in promoting the positive use of technology to make the online world a better and safer place for us all.

We are delighted to be able to share with you the Good News Gospel readings for families. Please follow the link to share the Gospel at home with your family. These are really child-friendly resources to share at home. https://www.paperturn-view.com/uk/wednesday-word/faithfulness?pid=MTA101634&v=74.6

Please take a look at these Ten Ten resources to support prayer and worship at home.

http://www.tentenresources.co.uk/prayers-for-home/parent-newsletter/